Imran Khan and wife appeal to High Court against new Pakistan Auditor General corruption case
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Khan have appealed in the Islamabad High Court against a fresh corruption case, hours after they were acquitted on Saturday of illegal marriage charges, the former premier’s party said on Monday.
In February this year, the couple was sentenced to seven years in prison in what is known as the Iddat case. A lower court found them guilty of violating Islamic law by failing to observe the required period, or iddat, between Bushra’s divorce from her previous marriage and her marriage to Khan. The couple appealed the conviction but were acquitted on Saturday.
Khan was convicted in four cases ahead of February’s general elections and has been in jail since August last year, but all the sentences against him, including the last one in the marriage case, have been overturned or suspended.However, on Saturday, hours after their acquittal in the Iddat case, the National Audit Bureau (NAB) filed fresh corruption charges against the two.
“The petition of Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi was filed in the court of Justice Amaal Farooq seeking quashing of NAB’s new Toshakhana summons. [state treasury] Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party on Monday said it would “stop the investigation and halt NAB’s legal proceedings” on X, referring to the Islamabad High Court chief justice.
On Saturday, a team from the corruption watchdog arrested the couple from Adiala Jail, where they had been incarcerated for several months, in a fresh investigation related to the alleged misuse of power to obtain gifts for Toshakhana.
Khan was given 14 and three-year prison sentences in two cases involving the taking and selling of state gifts. Both sentences have been suspended by the High Court pending appeal.
Khan and his wife are accused in the Toshakhana case of selling off state-owned gifts worth more than 140 million rupees ($501,000) that they received during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The gifts included diamond jewellery and seven watches, six of which were Rolexes, the most expensive of which was worth 85 million rupees ($305,000).
Pakistani media widely reported on Sunday that in a new NAB reference, the accountability court approved eight days’ detention each for Khan and Bushra.
“Today’s accountability court [Sunday] “The Attorney General has directed the National Prosecutor’s Office to interrogate the two suspects at Adiala Prison and also ordered the couple to be produced in court on July 22,” Geo News reported.
Khan remains on trial on anti-terrorism charges related to acts of violence against the military and other state installations that erupted after his brief arrest in May 2023.
The court last week revoked Khan’s bail in the case, creating new grounds for him to remain in jail after being acquitted of a charge of illegal marriage.
